Ed and I near an old telegraph pole on the Telegraph track
Luckily we had some guidance along the way from another group of 4WD people who were doing the whole track. (We later found out that one of their group wrecked a 2011 Landcruiser on the final water crossing!)
The first crossing (Canal Creek I think) was rather hairy but we made it across. Water was splashing up onto the bonnet and I was holding on tight. Ed did a great job getting across.
The track continued on with areas where the track had washed away as well as some very rocky areas.
The next crossing was Sam Creek (I think). After another walk through Ed crossed us over again successfully.
Graeme and Sue crossed first so they have some photo's of us crossing. It was fun however that was the extent of our crossings on the Telegraph Track.
We drove along further and near Mistake Creek we moved back onto the Development Track to continue on up to the Jardine River Ferry Crossing. The short 5 minute river crossing on the barge cost us $99.
We drove on through to Injinoo (where I want to take the kids for a school visit), Umagico and Bamaga. We then took the road up to the tip of Australia - Cape York (Pajinka). Along the way we stopped at 'The Croc Tent' which is a souvenir come information shop along the side of the road. We then had a beautiful drive through rainforest to get to the tip of Australia. We have now also ticked of the northern most point! The tide was way out and we climbed over rocks to get there.
The sign says it all!
We had lunch there before driving to Somerset Beach with is east of Pajinka. We found a campsite less than 50m from the beach. (We camped there Sat 9th - Mon 11th June) It is so cruel that the water looks so good and so inviting, however there are crocs in the water so it's a no go zone!
It felt like we had landed on a tropical beach. At either end of the beach there were mangroves so Ed found an old crab pot, fixed the holes and put it out with some bait. Fingers crossed!
We went to sleep listening to the sounds of the waves on the beach.
Sunday 10th June
Another lazy day next to a tropical beach - so hard to take!
We enjoyed a lazy day walking on the beach, fishing, playing cards, updating the blog etc.
Ed caught us a beautiful coral trout which we baked for dinner (see below) and to everyones amazement and excitement we caught a mud crab in the mended crab pot!
Ed and I enjoyed a yummy lunch of freshly caught mud crab.
Charlotte loved the blue spots on the trout!
Another day in paradise!!!!!
Charlotte found it hard to go to sleep as she was excited - it is her birthday tomorrow!Monday 11th June
Happy Birthday to our beautiful Charlotte Rose - 10 years old today! Thomas and Olivia had done some beautiful pictures for her and she got some cash from Nonnie & Poppi and Granny. We gave her a new tankini with matching boardies, a dress and some surfie bangles. An extra treat was $10 for turning 10!
Our beautiful 10 year old!
I just like this photo of the kids.
Ed and the kids on Somerset Beach
We packed up at leisurely pace and moved on into Seisia for a couple of nights. It was a bit on the expensive side but we were camping right next to the beach - apparently the resident croc isn't interested in campers!
We managed to find a small chocolate cake in the Seisia Supermarket for Charlotte's birthday- it's amazing what you can do with some jubes, banana lollies and fruit sticks!!!
Ed took us all down to the jetty and the kids were very good (especially Charlotte) at catching bait fish for Ed to use. Unfortunately like everyone else on the jetty (including the locals) we were not successful. Ed tried early the next morning with Charlotte and he missed a few. One person caught a Trevally which they didn't want so we enjoyed a yummy fish dinner on our second night.
Ed and the kids on the Seisia Jetty
We did some exploring of the WW2 sites around the area. Cape York was a strategic base used by Australia and the USA in the fight against Japan in WW2. Lots of soldiers and airmen were based up here. Unfortunately a few aircraft crashed killing both Australians and Americans.
A wreck of a DC3 that crashed killing all on board.
The next day we moved to Umagico Campground (Alau Beach) which was a nicer place (grassy sights and shady trees next to a sheltered bay). The added bonus was that kids under 12 were free!
We stayed there from Wednesday 13th - Sunday 17th June just fishing, walking on the beach, doing school work and relaxing some more. Nice life! Ed made friends with our neighbours at the campsite (Chris and Pam) and he ended up going out on their boat for a few days of fishing. Thanks Chris.
Whilst many got away, this yummy 4kg coral trout was caught. It was a yummy dinner that night! And it was nice to have some other smaller fish to freeze for dinner another day.
The sunsets on the beach were beautiful. We enjoyed watching them every night. The colours were amazing. I was as usual on hyper croc alert in the evening and at high tide especially when we did this.
We had planned to try and get over to Thursday Island for the day however a just the ferry tickets were going to be $400 for us all so we decided that we would just look at it from afar!
We enjoyed stopping for a while and chilling out in the sun in Cape York.
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